Is Trump doing a Kissinger?

ONE of the turning points in the Cold War was the US opening to China in the aftermath of then-president Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972.

The diplomatic opening was part of a strategy architected by then-US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Dr K, as he was known, was pursuing a policy at the centre of which was an effort to divide the communist bloc, and to pit the Soviet Union against China.

Under this policy, the US benefited from the split between the two communist superpowers, and created incentives for Moscow to improve its relationship with Washington by launching a process of American-Russian detente.